MANILA -- (UPDATED) City of Dreams Manila showcases its unique solution to keeping guests caffeinated with its in-house coffee shop and coffee roastery Café Society.

An initiative of City of Dreams Manila executive chef Markus Tauwald, it is a way to cut rising coffee costs without sacrificing the quality of their coffee.

"All these high-quality coffees cost a lot of money in a big property like this, where you use a lot of coffee. In 2019, we're talking about roughly 20 to 22 tons of coffee. This includes everything-- from the staff cafeteria to the main gaming floor, to all the casual restaurants, and to the premium restaurants,” he said.

It started out just something cool to do, recalled Tauwald, who did all the research and started working with the Philippine Coffee Board to learn about the ins and outs of coffee roasting.

“You need to get an emotional bond with the machine, with the bean, and the heat. You get an emotional bond to really get to the tricky part,” said the chef, comparing roasting to cooking.

In addition to cutting costs, the project supported the sustainability efforts by City of Dreams. By roasting their own locally sourced coffee beans, they get to work with local farmers and improve their carbon footprint by transporting coffee beans from within the Philippines. At the same time, even if they invested in a top-of-the-line industrial-grade Probat roaster, they ended up reducing their overall costs with them hitting their return on investment in half a year, saving up to P1,000 per kilo of coffee.

They eventually built a concept around this called Café Society.

The first incarnation was back in 2018 when it was a prominent tenant of the City of Dreams’ food hall, The Garage. It was somewhat ahead of its time as it had the bells and whistles of today’s coffee shops from high-end equipment like their “steampunk” coffee brewers, to premium Slayer espresso machines, to their offerings that included Spanish latte and café bombon, which are now staple drinks in Philippine café culture.

Unfortunately, The Garage had to close because a planned bridgeway to a nearby mall delayed construction, and ultimately, the pandemic.

During the pandemic, City of Dreams renovated the retail area of the property. Café Society was resurrected along with another Garage concept, Chocol8, a chocolate studio that produces truffles, chocolate bark, and even chocolate sculptures.

It is a treat to come to Café Society when they’re roasting coffee. The energizing aroma of freshly roasted beans just permeates through the whole space.

For now, Tauwald has three varieties of coffee, each for different areas of the entertainment complex: a Single Origin Atok Benguet Arabica, and a blend of 80/20 Mt. Matutum Arabica and Batangas Robusta for more premium outlets and hotels. Another blend of 70/30 Arabica and Robusta are roasted for the mass brewed coffee for the gaming floors.

For coffee lovers who want to try brewing coffee at home, these are available in 100g and 250g bags of beans at Café Society.

Tauwald and his F&B team really took the time and effort to see this roastery through.

“We just wanted to set ourselves aside from anybody else. We really wanted to get the best possible quality. The main focus always went back to sustainability. We interlink sustainability, local produce with the best possible quality in the product, use premium beans, use premium milk, and use premium skilled labor,“ he said.

And for Tauwald, that translates to very premium cups of coffee.

Cafe Society can be found at The Shops at the Boulevard at City of Dreams Manila and is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday to Monday and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday